Brigadier General Richard Whitehead Young

Brigadier General Richard Whitehead Young (1858-1919) was an admired and accomplished lawyer, author, educator, churchman, and military leader. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and was the grandson of Brigham Young-second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Young graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1882 and thereafter, earned his degree from Columbia University Law School. He practiced as a military attorney and then opened a private practice in Salt Lake City to be closer to his wife and their ten children.

Almost a decade later, Young was requested to re-join the military during the Spanish-American War, and led the Utah Light Artillery Battalion in the Philippines. After the war, he continued his service as a Supreme Court Justice in the Philippines before returning home. At the start of World War I, he was needed again in the military where he faithfully served as a Brigadier General in France. In 1919, Young was discharged from the war and returned home to spend time with his family before suddenly passing away from appendicitis that same year.

Richard Whitehead Young was thought of highly and spoken of with the utmost respect. In his eulogy at Young’s funeral, Heber J. Grant said,

He was honest to the core… there was no thought in that heart but to seek to know the right and to do the right.

The Sculptor
Melvin Earl Cummings (1876-1936) created this bust of Young in 1922. Cummings studied art in San Francisco and Paris and apprenticed as a woodcarver on the Salt Lake Temple in the late 19th century. Cummings was known for his portraits, statues, monuments, and architecture. Several of his other works are located in the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California.